Oh Bugger!

I walk my dogs most days around the boating lake at The Priory Country Pary in Bedford.  Invariably, I use the Range rover for taking them there because I often combine the trip with the school run, because it’s easier for the dogs to jump in and out of and because it fits easily under the height barrier entering the car park.  You can see where this is going already, can’t you…

Well, last weekend, Helena needed the Range Rover, so I took the dogs in the Land Rover.  Concentrating on the various dogs, some on lead and some not, kids on bikes, the many pedestrians and other cars entering the park, the two years and more of daily conditioning of ignoring the height barrier kicked in.  I was rudely reminded about it with a bang and a tinkle.  The roof rack hit the height barrier – a 6×6″ solid, laminated timber beam square on, wrecking the four round Ring spot lights and the Camel Trophy-style cages that mounted them on the rack.

I found the head Park Ranger after parking just outside and clearing up the debris to give him my details before continuing the walk.  Fair to say, I was not in a happy mood after making such a silly mistake.

On getting home, the lights and cages were removed.  I decided to have a go at repairing the cages, which were pretty badly mangled, even snapping the outboard uprights.  Amazingly, between the vice, a pair of mole grips, the arc-welder and grinder, I got them back perfectly into shape, and with a strip of the old Hammerite paint and a fresh application of galvanising paint in its place, they look like new.

Clearly, the outboard lights were not salvagable, though one inboard was only slightly dented at the back and the other unscathed, but this presented the opportunity for un upgrade I had wanted to make for a while – moving the round bullbar mounted Hella Rallye 1000s to the rack, along with a second hand pair of the same given to me by Rogers of Bedford, while fitting a new pair of rectangular Hella Comet 550s to the bullbar.  Apart from being plastic cased, thus avoiding the rusting that was setting into the edges of the Ring spots for a second time, the higher lens quality of the Hellas should produce a little less bonnet glare than the Rings.  The rectangular front spots block the radiator grille less from airflow and allow much greater access to the winch, which is why I suspect they were chosen for the Camel Trophy vehicles.  So, my lighting is now brighter and better than before, and has a couple of additional benefits, all for the cost of an aerosol tin of galvanising paint and one pair of new lights.  I’m not sure the aesthetics are as good as before with the round lights up front, but they’re certainly better than with a mangled set of spots up top or with the top lights removed – it looked horribly naked during the week while I was repairing the cages.

Incidentally, the argument between barrier and Land Rover was won by the Land Rover – there was no other damage to the vehicle, but the beam was smashed in half and the steel backets were damaged.  So, that’s all going to cost me too…